The Loose Connections Recommender #21

On Special Occasions, Sequins & Using The Good Plates

The other day while wandering around the behemoth that is IKEA, I passed a woman probably in her 60s casually strolling through the bathroom section wearing rather incongruous silver sequinned pants. Like everyone else in the store, I couldn’t help but do a double take and I’m a little ashamed to admit my first thought was something along the lines of ‘Jeez lady, take it easy, we’re not at a disco here’.

My judgemental attitude bothered me throughout the afternoon and I eventually came to the conclusion that wearing silver sequinned pants to shop at IKEA or the supermarket or to walk the dog is absolutely the right thing to do and I had somehow lost my way when I decided it was OK to leave the house in track pants (damn you Covid). Like, why the hell not wear the good stuff, the clothes you love and treasure that make you feel good and sparkly and brighter in your wardrobe at any opportunity, rather than keeping them tucked away for special occasions. Why not make everyday a special occasion? So thank you for that reminder, IKEA lady.

I get sad about strange things sometimes, like for the peas that grew, and then were frozen and packaged, and purchased and taken home and finally cooked - and then left pushed aside on the plate and finally end up in the trash. Or all the food that remains uneaten long past its due date and has to be discarded. The beautiful-never-used-hand-embroidered-napkins found often in op shops - laboured over with love and hope for a future life only to remain pristine and never touched, never enjoyed, never sullied…. All that potential, all that waste.

So my philosophy is to use the good plates, the gold trimmed wedding china, the treasured, precious teacups you inherited from your grandma. Use the crystal wine glasses! The delicate etched vintage water glasses! You deserve to be surrounded by beautiful things that bring you pleasure. And if they end up smashed, as items in my kitchen often do, then at least they saw daylight and were appreciated and celebrated. Life is short. Make every day a special occasion. Wear the sequins.

These are a few of my favourite things